Foro de Inteligencia, Espionaje y Servicios Secretos

21:15, February 27, 2009

Equatorial Guinean president sacks security minister after attack
Equatorial Guinean President Theodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has sacked the national security minister and three senior generals after the recent sea-borne attack on his residence, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI) monitored here.

The demotion came on Wednesday after Obiang linked the Feb. 17 attack to internal complices.

Obiang, who returned to his residence in the island capital Malabo on Feb. 20, promised a big reward for clues on internal complices of the assailants, indicating a possibility that someone had been paid for relaxing regard.

A group of gunmen on board speedboats launched the predawn raid inducing hours of shootout, causing casualties on both sides. Obiang happened to be elsewhere on the country's mainland at the time.

The government said after daylight it had repelled the assault in which at least one attacker was shot dead and several others got drowned when the Navy sank their boat. A number of the rest were arrested.

On the side of the government, casualties include one dead and several wounded.

The Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC), which includes Equatorial Guinea, denounced the attack as a coup attempt, voicing solidarity with its member state.

The GGC, created in April 2007 and headquartered in Luanda, Angola, also includes Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

So far, nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, although the government attributed the hostility to an armed group from around Nigeria's Niger Delta.

The mainstream Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta(MEND) immediately denied any involvement.

MEND, a Nigerian rebel group which defines itself to fight for only local interests, is known for attacks in southern Nigeria.

But speculation is running high that the attackers are similar to foreign mercenaries who were caught trying to overthrow the president in 2004, when members of MEND were reportedly recruited in the coup attempt.

Equatorial Guinea, which is the third oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, has suffered coups and other forms of instability for years since its independence from Spain in 1968. Dozens of foreign mercenaries could pose a serious threat to the tiny, oil-rich Gulf of Guinea country, which has a population of 1 million and an area of more than 28,000 square km.

Source:Xinhua

Author stumbles on G-Bissau drama
Author Frederick Forsyth has told the BBC of his surprise to find himself in Guinea-Bissau on the day the president and army chief were assassinated.

The British writer flew in to research a new book as the country was plunged into a drama that could have leapt from the pages of one of his thrillers.

The Day of the Jackal author told of the "bizarre" events as renegade troops "rather slowly" killed the president.

He said the drama was "garnish on the cake" that might be in his new novel.

The writer was at pains to point out: "I can assure you I had nothing to do with the coup d'etat."

Forsyth has previously admitted helping to finance a 1973 coup attempt in another West African state, Equatorial Guinea.

Those events were the inspiration for his 1974 book The Dogs of War, which chronicles a failed plan by a group of European mercenaries to topple the government of a fictional African country.

Forsyth added that this week's turmoil in Guinea-Bissau was more a battle between two bitter political enemies than a coup.

The best-selling author arrived in Guinea-Bissau from the Portuguese capital Lisbon just after the army chief-of-staff, General Tagme Na Waie, was assassinated on Sunday.

He was trying to sleep in his hotel room in the early hours of Monday morning when he heard an explosion.

It was the roof of the presidential villa collapsing as soldiers launched an apparent tit-for-tat attack on veteran ruler Joao Bernardo Vieira.
"They went to his villa, threw a bomb through the window which hurt him, but didn't kill him," Forsyth told the BBC's World Today programme.

"The roof came down, that hurt him but didn't kill him either. He struggled out of the rubble and was promptly shot. This, however, still didn't kill him.

"They then took him to his mother-in-law's house and chopped him to bits with machetes."

Mr Forsyth, who had dinner with the forensic pathologist investigating the assassination on Monday evening, has a theory why this happened.

“ We are not talking about two Mother Theresas here ”
Frederick Forsyth
"Basically these two men absolutely loathed each other," he said.

"The president was a very violent man and the chief-of-staff was a pretty violent man too. We are not talking about two Mother Theresas here".

His pointed out the army chief-of-staff was a member of the old military junta which governed the country before President Vieira was returned to power in 2005.

"There was no love lost between them because the old general didn't like the newly arrived populist president," said Forsyth.

He added: "It looks like one tried to get rid of the threat the other posed."

The writer said he was "rather upset" because the double assassination had disrupted his travel plans.

"I can't get out now," he said. "I was due to fly out tomorrow afternoon, and I rather think that they're going to keep the airport closed, which is very inconvenient."

But all is not lost. Mr Forsyth said he will probably use some of the real-life drama for his new novel.

"What I was researching had nothing to do with bumping off generals or bumping off presidents," he said.

"But it's a little extra garnish on the cake, so I'll probably use it eventually in the book."

Forsyth appears to attract trouble whenever he visits this part of the world.

The former BBC foreign correspondent recalled that while flying into the region decades ago to cover the Biafra War, a bullet passed between his legs as he sat in the back of an ammunition plane.

"I'm not vastly enamoured of the place, but there we are," he said.

3 de Abril - El Rey de Marruecos visitará este mes de abril Guinea Ecuatorial para firmar un convenido de cooperación portuaria entre ambos países. Cuando finalicen las obras de ampliación del Puerto de Malabo, se convertirá en el único gran puerto de agua profunda en África Central.

El Rey de Marruecos, Mohammed VI, visitará Guinea Ecuatorial, del 15 al 17 del presente mes de abril donde tiene previsto firmar un Convenio de Cooperación y de Asociación entre el Puerto de Malabo, capital del país, y los puertos internacionales marroquíes, según informaron fuentes del Gobierno ecuatoguineano a afrol News, al termino de un Consejo de Ministros celebrado en la ciudad de Bata.

Esta visita, la primera que realizará oficialmente un monarca marroquí al único país de habla hispana del África Subsahariana, ha sido considerada por las autoridades ecuatoguineanas como un "éxito diplomático orientado a intensificar y reforzar las tradicionales relaciones de amistad y de cooperación entre ambos estados”.

El anuncio del viaje del monarca alauí se produjo tras el encuentro celebrado entre el presidente del país, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, con el director general de la Caja de Deposito y Gestión de Marruecos, Mustafa Bakouri.

El pasado mes de febrero se dio por finalizada la primera parte de las obras de ampliación del Puerto de Malabo. Este proyecto de infraestructura permitirá asumir a la antigua colonia española el tráfico marítimo que actualmente necesita, a raíz del boom económico y comercial que vive gracias a los ingresos proporcionados por la explotación del petróleo y del gas natural.

Cuando esté completamente finalizado, el de Malabo, con una explanada de operaciones de 6.000 m de superficie, dos almacenes para carga con capacidad de 8.400 metros cúbicos y un terminal de pasajeros de 1.200 m lineales, será el único gran puerto de agua profunda de la región de África Central.


© afrol News